Europe stands at a crossroads. Three influential voices — Mario Draghi, Enrico Letta, and Ursula von der Leyen — have, each in their own way, diagnosed the same condition.
Draghi warns that Europe’s competitiveness continues to erode. One year after his report, he speaks not of progress but of deterioration and of a continent losing its capacity to act at scale and speed.
Letta reminds us that renewal cannot come through protectionism but through openness — through what he calls a Fifth Freedom: the free circulation of knowledge, research, and innovation. A freedom that speaks directly to universities of science and technology, because we embody that circulation — across borders, generations, and disciplines.
And Von der Leyen, in her latest State of the Union address, framed her message in a single word repeated five times in six sentences: fight. Europe must fight — for security, for competitiveness, for its model of society.
Competitiveness, openness, and security: three priorities, one tension. How can we engage with political urgency without surrendering the independence that makes our engagement meaningful?
The challenge before Europe’s universities of science and technology is not to resist change, but to shape it — to ensure that Europe’s response to strategic competition strengthens rather than weakens the foundations of knowledge and trust.
In navigating this evolving geopolitical landscape, universities already operate across a continuum of responsibility — from resilience and safety through security and, in some cases, defence. At one end, we strengthen societal resilience through education, research, and innovation; at the other, some of our Members engage in areas that contribute directly or indirectly to security and defence capabilities.
Across this continuum, the principle remains the same: to act thoughtfully, transparently, and in accordance with our values.
Autonomy and academic freedom are what enable such responsible engagement, ensuring that the pursuit of knowledge continues to serve society rather than the other way around. Universities of science and technology have always been more than instruments of policy — they are spaces where societies learn to question, to imagine alternatives, and to reconcile innovation with responsibility.
Our autonomy is not an escape from relevance; it is the precondition for lasting relevance.
Yet, we operate in a world where the pace of technological change is set not in Brussels but across a global system — where breakthroughs in domains like bioscience, quantum, and AI, and especially their convergence, emerge from multiple centres of power.
Europe must therefore navigate, rather than dictate, the global tempo of technological change. At the same time, we face growing inequality, polarisation, and distrust in expertise. In parts of Europe and beyond, populist currents even suggest that knowledge itself is just an opinion. These societal currents deeply affect how societies embrace — or resist — the role of science and technology in shaping their futures.
To make sense of these dynamics, I propose a simple framework: four quadrants of possible futures for Europe’s universities of science and technology, based on two dimensions.
The technological dimension reflects the global rate of technological development — ranging from slower (due to regulation, caution, or instability) to faster (driven by transformative breakthroughs).
The socio-economic dimension encompasses Europe’s internal cohesion, social trust, and its position in the global economy — from a cohesive and confident Europe to a fragmented and fragile one.
Together, these create four scenarios:
In cohesive societies such as Solidarity Europe and Strategic Europe, universities can engage openly and responsibly, supported by shared trust.
In fragmented ones, those same engagements become politically risky and ethically complex.
Recognising this allows us to prepare for all contexts — ensuring that integrity is never conditional on circumstance.
These scenarios are not predictions but lenses, each revealing the choices and capacities we must strengthen.
For CESAER, three roles are constant across all futures:
Foresight and intelligence — scanning the horizon to anticipate change.
Principled dialogue — hosting open, informed debate on sensitive issues such as dual-use research, security, and ethics, and contributing expertise and ethical insight to evolving European frameworks such as Horizon Europe and the European Defence Fund. Responsible engagement begins with sound governance and ends with trust — trust earned through consistency between what we say and how we act.
Unity in diversity — keeping the European knowledge community whole, across both EU and non-EU Members.
For universities, three imperatives stand out:
Engage but preserve integrity — collaborate with industry and policy, but always on clear ethical terms.
Diversify connections — build alliances that go beyond politics and geography to strengthen resilience.
Invest in people — because adaptability and trust rest on human talent, not technology alone.
Each university must define its own position, in line with its mission, capabilities, and values. Some will engage directly in security or defence research; others will remain fully focused on civilian, open science. Both choices are legitimate, and both are essential to Europe’s balance.
What matters is that all act with clarity, accountability, and a shared commitment to uphold academic freedom.
Autonomy is not isolation — it is the ability to act responsibly in complexity. It allows universities to serve society’s needs without being absorbed by them.
If Europe’s competitiveness is to endure, it must rest on universities free to think ahead of policy, not merely to follow it.
Draghi and Letta speak of scale and speed; to this we must add trust. Universities contribute to increasing trust when freedom and responsibility coexist.
CESAER’s independence gives that trust institutional form. Funded and governed by its Members, CESAER can speak truthfully, bridge divides, and translate reflection into influence. Through our task forces and peer learning, we help universities not just to react to change but to shape it.
Universities of science and technology stand at the intersection of Europe’s competitiveness, its cohesion, and its conscience. The tempo of technology and the health of our societies are not ours alone to control — but how we navigate them is.
CESAER’s task is to ensure that engagement never becomes subordination, and independence never becomes detachment.
Together, we can demonstrate that autonomy and relevance, ethics and excellence, belong together.
In the end, Europe’s true competitiveness will not depend on how fiercely it can fight, but on how boldly it can think — and how wisely it can turn thought into shared progress.
Karel Luyben served as Rector Magnificus of Delft University of Technology (2010–2018), President of CESAER (2014–2017), and President of the EOSC Association (2021–2025). This editorial is based on his invited keynote address delivered during the thirty-ninth CESAER General Assembly on 24 October 2025.
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